A sixth satellite, for Chile’s armed forces, is scheduled for separation at 0639 GMT.

The satellites will also have civilian applications.

The launch was controlled by France’s Arianespace rocket launch company.

This was the second time that a Soyuz, which first flew in 1966 and traces its roots back even further to the earliest Cold War intercontinental ballistic missiles, was launched from outside its former Soviet bases.

The first French Guiana-launched Soyuz rocket orbited the first two of Europe’s Galileo global positioning satellite constellation last October.